In 2004, Apollo Group, based in Essex, won a contract to carry out renovations including window replacements and internal improvements on flats owned by social landlord Southern Housing in Mount Pleasant, Bracknell

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Building firms have been slapped with multi-million pound fines for illegally rigging bids for contracts including one case involving renovations to a Bracknell social housing development.

Balfour Beatty and Apollo Group have been handed fines of £5,197,004 and £2,150,536 respectively after they were named and shamed for several cases of price-fixing in an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) crackdown on price fixing in the building industry.

But Apollo Group has said the ruling is unfair and unfounded and is planning to appeal.

The OFT released a list of 103 companies found guilty of ‘cover-pricing’ over the last six years on Tuesday.

Cover pricing is where companies work together secretly to raise prices. One company will table an artificially high quote to take on a job so the other can table a slightly lower bid, which is still more than it should cost but gives the illusion of being a bargain.

Often the company which tables the artificial bid will get a pay-off from the company which wins the contract.

In 2004, Apollo Group, based in Essex, won a contract to carry out renovations including window replacements and internal improvements on flats owned by social landlord Southern Housing in Mount Pleasant, Bracknell.

The OFT said they only won the contract, at a price of £606,000, after the company Mansell, now owned by Balfour Beatty, tabled an artificially high bid.

The case is among several incidents of price-fixing in which the two companies have been named by the OFT.

Mansell has been cited in a case in Sunninghill where neither Mansell nor Francis, the company it is accused of colluding with, won the contract.

Both London-based Balfour Beatty and Apollo Group have pledged to make sure they are never involved in price fixing and Apollo Group has hit back at the ruling saying it is “wholly unfounded” and that it plans to appeal against it.

A spokesman for Apollo Group said: “Since the OFT’s investigation was announced, Apollo has repeatedly made clear that it believes the allegations against it to be wholly unfounded.

“Apollo has always operated to the highest ethical standards and will continue to do so.

“Shortly after the OFT made its allegations Apollo instigated its own investigation led by a leading law firm.

“No evidence substantiating the allegations was found.”

A spokesman for Balfour Beatty said: “The company and its operating businesses have co-operated fully with the OFT in all aspects of its investigation.

“Balfour Beatty is confident that its employees are fully aware of the law and its intent and that they follow appropriate practices.

The OFT’s investigation uncovered 199 cases of price fixing in the construction firm since 2003 and resulted in fines totalling £129.5million.

Simon Williams, the OFT’s senior director for the case, said: “Bidding processes designed to ensure clients receive the best possible choice and price were distorted, creating a real risk of increased prices.

“This decision sends a strong message that anti-competitive and illegal practices, including cover-pricing, must cease.

“The OFT welcomes initiatives by the leadership of the construction industry to add weight to that message through a clear compliance code which we hope will embed more fully a culture if competition with in the construction sector.”